Fr. Michael L. Pfleger

Pastor of St. Sabina’s on Chicago’s south side from 1981. Prominent anti-violence and social justice advocate. Suspended in 1/21, accused of abusing a boy 40 years prior. The accuser’s brother soon also said the priest abused him as a boy. The brothers said the abuse occurred for years, starting when they were ages 12 and 13 in the 1970s and Pleger was a seminarian and their choir director at Precious Blood parish. In 3/21 a third man said Pfleger made an unwanted sexual advance toward him when the man was 18 in 1979. Pfleger “strongly denied” all accusations. Pfleger wrote to the Auburn Gresham community that he would “seek other ways…to minister” to them. In 3/21 a fourth person reportedly may have come forward. Reinstated after the Review Board said in 5/21 there was “insufficient reason to suspect…. Pfleger is guilty… .” Again suspended in 10/22 due to a new allegations of abuse of a boy in the late 1980s. Pfleger denied the accusation. Reinstated in 12/22 after the Review Board “found no reason to suspect” Pfleger was guilty.